うちはサスケ Uchiha Sasuke ("Loyalsuke") (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stirs_the_leaves) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2012-11-01 08:28 pm
stirs_the_leaves) wrote in towerofanimus2012-11-01 08:28 pm
Entry tags:
03 - Guilt and Hate
Characters: Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, Romeo; CLOSED
Setting: Floor 13, Cathedral (may or may not branch out with the fighting)
Format: Prose
Summary: Sasuke intends to sequester himself in guilt after the events of October; Itachi discovers him and the inevitable battle ensues. Romeo eventually finds them and tries to stop them.
Warnings: Violence; angst, angst, angst; graphic gore.
Sasuke had managed to keep his composure until he'd made it from the dormitories to the cathedral. He'd taken note, in the short time before he'd changed, of how deserted it usually was, and how poorly sound carried. Perfect. He'd avoided coming into contact with anyone on the way here, thank the gods; once he arrived, he'd chosen a pew on the left side, as far towards the head of the church as he could get without interrupting the quiet whispers from no one. Then he'd taken the seat at the furthest end from center, sat, and wept.
He was a failure of a shinobi. His duty, his number one mission as a shinobi of Konohagakure, was to protect the village. He could hardly do that here, but he could do - and should have been doing - what any Konoha ninja worth his salt would do: protect the civilians. Keep things running smoothly. Be a shinobi. He'd failed utterly at all of it. He'd killed people. Civilians. Innocent bystanders.
And he'd done it wearing the orange skin of a youko.
His fingers clutched deeply into the fabric of his vest as he crossed his arms over himself, squeezing tightly down across his ribs to suppress some of the sound of his sobbing. He was an ANBU. His mission directly from Ibiki, directly from the Hokage, was to keep the Kyuubi in check. He couldn't even control himself at one tail, let alone as the numbers had grown.
One palm lifted to press against the cool metal of his hitai-ate. He didn't bother wiping away his tears.
Setting: Floor 13, Cathedral (may or may not branch out with the fighting)
Format: Prose
Summary: Sasuke intends to sequester himself in guilt after the events of October; Itachi discovers him and the inevitable battle ensues. Romeo eventually finds them and tries to stop them.
Warnings: Violence; angst, angst, angst; graphic gore.
Sasuke had managed to keep his composure until he'd made it from the dormitories to the cathedral. He'd taken note, in the short time before he'd changed, of how deserted it usually was, and how poorly sound carried. Perfect. He'd avoided coming into contact with anyone on the way here, thank the gods; once he arrived, he'd chosen a pew on the left side, as far towards the head of the church as he could get without interrupting the quiet whispers from no one. Then he'd taken the seat at the furthest end from center, sat, and wept.
He was a failure of a shinobi. His duty, his number one mission as a shinobi of Konohagakure, was to protect the village. He could hardly do that here, but he could do - and should have been doing - what any Konoha ninja worth his salt would do: protect the civilians. Keep things running smoothly. Be a shinobi. He'd failed utterly at all of it. He'd killed people. Civilians. Innocent bystanders.
And he'd done it wearing the orange skin of a youko.
His fingers clutched deeply into the fabric of his vest as he crossed his arms over himself, squeezing tightly down across his ribs to suppress some of the sound of his sobbing. He was an ANBU. His mission directly from Ibiki, directly from the Hokage, was to keep the Kyuubi in check. He couldn't even control himself at one tail, let alone as the numbers had grown.
One palm lifted to press against the cool metal of his hitai-ate. He didn't bother wiping away his tears.
no subject
He didn't feel like examining them at length, at any rate. His efforts to explore one of the floors, the one covered in curtains, had earned him nothing but an encounter with a monster. He'd been quick to kill it, which restored some confidence he'd lost after his encounter on the 43rd floor a few weeks ago, but it didn't make him feel particularly eager to do much more investigating.
No, for the time being he was content to wander around the Tower, in hopes of finding a sufficiently secluded place in which to contemplate last month's happenings. He'd been wandering past the cathedral when he sensed something he hadn't felt in quite a while.
Chakra.
Sasuke's chakra.
He stopped dead in his tracks, one arm resting out of its sleeve in the front of his half-opened cloak, and peered into the room from his place on the steps. The familiar head of hair peeking out from behind one of the pews confirmed what he'd been thinking. It was Sasuke, but his chakra felt off; it was warmer than he remembered it being, in a way, and that left Itachi puzzling. But there Sasuke was, clear as day. There was a certain feel to his chakra that he would not, could not mistake, not after practically raising the boy.
So was it one of the Tower's tricks? Should he walk away and hope that he was seeing some sort of strange phantom? No, he couldn't - after standing in the same place for so long (only mere moments, but that was enough for a ninja), he doubted he'd be able to turn tail and run. Sasuke would undoubtedly have sensed him already. And wasn't this what he wanted, to finish his confrontation with his brother? He could be facing a blessing in disguise.
Itachi steeled himself, and took one step into the cathedral.
"So you've made your way here as well," he said, in an almost conversational tone. "It's about time."
no subject
Like Itachi, he could not mistake the other's chakra. It was simply not possible. Even in the midst of his sobbing, the presence cut through him like a knife.
No.
No no no no no.
He wasn't ready.
He hadn't prepared for this. He was caught off-guard. He was not caught unarmed, thank any gods who might listen or hear him here, but he was not ready.
He thought of the summoning cuffs he'd meant to prepare on the insides of his wrists before doing this. He thought of the solid walls around him, the impossibility of creating the storm clouds necessary for Kirin.
He thought of all this in bare seconds, and by that time, Itachi had stopped on the stairs.
Fuck.
He could feel Sharingan. Just. Feel them. Though it was fruitless to hope the other man wouldn't notice the motion, he could at least clear his vision, and he quickly wiped his eyes with the back of his arm.
By the time Itachi moved again, he had flicked open the tie on the scroll in his right hip pocket; had clasped his left hand over the hilt of the family sword. At least he had this. If it was possible... if he managed it... it would be fitting to kill the clan-killer with the blade of the Uchiha. Fugaku's blade.
Sound barely carried here. It didn't matter. With every fiber on high alert, with his nerves steeled, with his chakra pouring into all of his five senses, Sasuke heard it anyway. The same cold, impassive voice. His gut twisted. His resolve hardened.
Without a word, with tears still drying on his cheeks, Sasuke stood, unsheathing the katana in the same fluid motion with which he rose and turned, and slicing an arc through the air that sent a thousand Chidori needles sailing in a spreading cloud toward every inch of the front of the church.
no subject
He didn't have time to think over this oddity before needles of electricity were raining down in his direction. Naturally, his Sharingan allowed him to anticipate the movement, and he appeared behind Sasuke before any of them reached their marks. He twirled in midair and pulled out a handful of shuriken, which he sent flying at Sasuke's back.
He landed crouched on the back of one of the pews, quickly shoving his arm back into the sleeve of his cloak. Even though he performed all of his movements with haste, he didn't appear alarmed or pressed for time at all.
no subject
He landed on the side wall of the lofts over a dozen feet up, feet braced just above the column arches. The blade was back inside its scabbard, left hand holding delicately along the intricate carvings. Eyes were trained carefully in Itachi's direction, but nowhere near the face. He was no fool. He may have been unprepared, but he was not untrained for this.
Sasuke didn't even bother hiding the seals for the Goukakyuu; what he did do was channel the chakra broader than thick, using the shaping prowess he'd learned from Jiraiya. Rather than a round fireball, this Goukakyuu was a wave, a wall of fire fifty feet wide if less than ten deep.
no subject
Itachi settled on continuing to leap backward, landing on pew after pew as the cathedral caught fire. He stared up at Sasuke - blurry and hard-to-see up there near the ceiling - and tried to catch his eye, though the boy had done a fine job of avoiding that thus far.
no subject
He felt the shudder of Sharingan on him again, trained his own on the feet and legs he could see beneath the cloak instead. Ten meters. Too far for his spear.
Fine then - his right hand plunged into the hip pocket and flicked two and a half feet of scroll into the open air. Fingers ran down the rice paper in an easy sweep, a cloud of summoning smoke puffing up in their wake. The hand swept back through to catch, and then a dozen shuriken, some standard, some spined, were whizzing through the air in a broad arc. A quick series of hand seals dipped them close enough to the existing blaze to catch their fire before spinning on toward their target.
no subject
Before it even had a chance to appear, he pulled out a kunai and went to work. His eyes and hand moved in tandem as he deflected the majority of the shuriken that came his way, the heat from their fires turning his knuckles a light pink. The few that he allowed himself to miss cut though the edges of his cloak and left it singed, but the damage was minimal.
Around the time Itachi had deflected a half dozen of the shuriken, his shadow clone appeared in the air. It held a kunai in its fist that it aimed at Sasuke's throat.
no subject
He didn't move as the clone appeared, just cast a glare in the direction of its throat, hooked one of the cords in his teeth, and pulled. When it came within inches the air crackled; lightning radiated from his skin, first a crackle of blue along limbs, then a burst that sparked quickly out to a shielding web several feet thick. And then, radiated down the cords at electric speed, blasting the fire bursts off the spinning shuriken as lightning erupted from within instead.
no subject
It took him a moment to see who it was but when he realised his eyes widened. "No!" He shouted running towards them, not caring that they were both really powerful. He ran towards Itachi, since he knew him better.
"Stop sir! You can't fight Sasuke!"
I AM INCAPABLE OF WRITING ANYTHING BUT TL;DR I'M SO SORRY sob
As he was preparing himself to counter, he heard an unmistakable voice on the far side of the cathedral. Even over the dulled roar of the fire (that was, he noted, only burning the pews and not the floor), and even with the cathedral's sound-muffling capabilities, he knew who it was. His hearing had gotten much better since he started losing his eyesight, after all.
Romeo. Romeo was running toward him, and so many things ran through Itachi's head at that moment - 'He knows the truth' and 'He's going to find himself in the line of fire' and a million other thoughts and feelings - that he found himself distracted.
The distraction only lasted for a second at best, but that was time he couldn't afford to spare. In one swift motion, he whipped off his cloak and sent it soaring through the air. The cloak caught the shuriken that had been heading for his front, absorbing the shock and falling off to the side, but it did nothing about the ones behind him. He jumped up and turned in midair, the ones beneath him whizzing past, but found himself face-to-face with one last shuriken. Out of reflex, he jerked his arm up, and the shuriken tore through his flesh.
It didn't stick, but it left a long gash in his upper arm, and the electricity paralyzed him long enough to send him crashing to the ground. His head struck the side of a pew, and he rolled onto his side and coughed, blood spilling from his lips. The amount of smoke in the room did his diseased lungs no favors, and even though he'd only been in contact with the shuriken for a moment, his skin still tingled with the aftershock.
He jerked his head up to glare at Romeo, eyes narrow and dangerous. 'Don't come any closer,' his gaze seemed to say, and, 'Keep your mouth shut.'
no subject
But when he saw Itachi fall, his heart leapt into his throat, beating furiously anew. He didn't even spare a glance of certainty for the shadow clone (he had felt it burst, seen the feathers and shadows of crows to one side), only dove, leaping off the barrier with all the force of his chakra. The lightning still crackled blue around him in a foot-deep shield, chakra pouring from his skin to keep it up; he drew his katana as he flew, and the steel easily conducted sparking electricity through its entire length. His leap carried him in a horizontal sail over the pews, and once he'd carried himself over the other's prone form, he swung his legs down, cutting his momentum and dropping like a stone, legs bent up to brace for the impact, sparking katana held point-down in both fists.
tl;dr is good, sorry about the delay
"Please stop mister Sasuke, don't hurt him!" He was scared, not because he could get hurt, because he had little reason to worry about that in a place where you woke up from being dead but because two people he really liked where fighting.
no problem! d'awww Romeo pls
A clone appeared and wrapped its arms around Romeo, lifting him up. With the boy locked firmly in its grasp, the clone jumped back toward the front of the cathedral quickly enough to avoid the blow.
At the same time, Sasuke's katana appeared to go through Itachi's body, but as the electricity coursed through him, it burst into another flock of crows. They scattered in a flurry of motion, some of them dropping from the shock of the electricity, others flapping off to perch on the ledges of the stained glass windows that framed the place.
Itachi - the real Itachi - landed in the dead center of the head of the church. The moment his feet touched the floor, the muttering voices went quiet, shrouding him in a heavy silence penetrated only by the muffled creaking and crackling of the pews that burned around them.
He spoke calmly, but loudly enough to be heard from where he stood. "Let's not pull unrelated parties into this fight of ours, shall we?"
Near the back of the church, his clone set Romeo on the ground, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
no subject
And even aside from all that, was the cold fear clutching his throat when Itachi gathered the boy up. Visions of horror flashed through his mind, and he turned to follow Romeo, uncaring that he was taking his eyes from his target for the moment. Civilians first.
He was stunned, therefore, to see the clone set the boy down and then vanish. He blinked, glancing up to the enemy at the head of the church - still not making eye contact - then back to Romeo. Dozens of questions ricocheted through his mind, but he pushed them coldly aside. He could wonder later.
"Leave," he called to Romeo, his voice worried, desperate. "You can't possibly understand this. You're going to get hurt here - just go." He formed the signs for another Chidori, let the lightning crackle along his arm and spark off the edges of his blade. But he didn't release it yet, and he didn't move. Romeo's answer would determine what direction he needed to go first.
no subject
The moment he was set down he ran forwards again, not caring about being hurt too much. "No mister Sasuke! You can't hurt him! Don't hurt each others! You can't do it it's so bad and you will both be sad afterwards!" Because they were brothers and they would be really sad if they hurt each other, even if Itachi was still pretending to be bad this was Sasuke and he couldn't hurt him!
if you need clarification on any of the things Itachi remembers, feel free to ping me ;;
Itachi moved reflexetively. With the way Romeo was babbling, it was only a matter of time before he said something he shouldn't, and he had to stop him. He tossed a shuriken so fast that even Sasuke wouldn't be able to see his hand move. It grazed Romeo's shoulder and stuck in the far wall, and Itachi realized with a sinking feeling that he'd done the exact same thing to Sasuke years ago when Sasuke had found him standing over their parents' bodies.
It was a pivotal moment, and since his Sharingan had been activated the entire time, Itachi remembered it all clear as day. The sword coming down on his parents' backs; how frantic he was to wipe the tears from his cheeks once the deed was done; Sasuke coming through the doors a moment later, wearing that look on his face that made Itachi feel sick to his stomach to this day; and the shuriken he'd sent sailing impassivley at him when he demanded to know what had happened to mother and father.
And, though the memories might not be as clear in his mind, Romeo would no doubt recall that, too.
He glowered at Romeo and hoped that the look in his eyes betrayed all the anxiety, the warning, the desperation that he was feeling inside. To Sasuke, it would look like a glare; to Romeo, a plea. All the while, he was looking at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye, trying out plan after plan after plan. He wondered if he could get out of the fight by using reason, but the flames of Sasuke's anger might be burning too hotly for that by now.
Oh well. He'd try to roll with the punches.
And here's where I get graphic (and tl;dr) with violence and blood in memory, oops.
And then the shuriken flew.
His heart went cold in his chest, his eyes wide and spinning tomoe nonstop, as he watched the faintest mist of blood cough from the gap in Romeo's skin. His gaze slid out of focus for a bare instant, and in that moment, he saw a thousand images flashing through his mind's eye. His parents. His aunties. His cousins. His uncles. Cut down, screaming, bleeding, dead. The sword falling through the air, sweeping across his parents' backs, ending the lives of those closest to him.
And then, the images of what had not come to pass, but which had been shown to him by Itachi just two years ago, two years long but burned into his mind by the Tsukuyomi: The bodies of his new beloved family. Of his village. Kiba, limbs hewn from his body, trying desperately to wriggle his way toward the broken, twisted body of his dog. Kurenai, guts and organs and fetus spilling from her open belly. Gai and Lee, ghastly twins impaled on matching pikes. Jiraiya, skin peeled away from half his body, raw sinew in a pool of blood. Sakura, eyeless, sobbing blood from gaping sockets. Kakashi - just a head, broken shard of his hitai-ate stabbed through what had been his Sharingan. And Naruto, throat slashed, gurgling a dying scream through blood.
Blood. Blood. Blood.
He clenched his eyes shut, fighting back the urge to be sick. Took one, deep, quick breath. And when they opened, he was already in motion.
Hand seals formed in a flash of nearly no time at all; he shot toward the head of the cathedral, cold, cold red eyes locked on Itachi, the warm blue of the Chidori dulling towards a steely grey, spiraled up his arm and down his sword. A shadow clone flickered in the opposite direction, sword sheathed, lightning gone, reaching Romeo in an instant. It plucked the boy up, cradled him softly against his chest and shoulder, and bolted for the exit as swiftly as Sasuke's blade was bolting for Itachi's heart.
- Or nearly; when Sasuke was within meters, he swung the blade forward, and the lightning shot forward in a javelin, extending the blade at speeds higher than even Sasuke could travel.
He would murder this man, even if that was the appropriate word to some. It was too good for Itachi in his mind. To him, right now, this would just be killing.
welp
Another shadow grabbed him but this time he fought it because he could still see, see Sasuke rushing at Itachi with the sword and though Itachi would come back... Sasuke would have killed his brother and that was a really bad thing. And Itachi would be angry and sad and probably do more bad things when he woke up. And then Sasuke would believe he was a really bad person and they would always hate each other.
Romeo couldn't let that happen. "No Sasuke don't kill him! You can't hurt him, brothers aren't supposed to hurt each other! He loves you lots so you just got to stop."
no subject
The colors in the cathedral faded. The walls, ceiling, furniture, and even their skin went black, the flames that burned the pews went white, and the stained glass windows cast an ominous red glow on the altar where Itachi stood. Both Sasuke and his lighting froze in place, and Romeo's voice would never reach Sasuke's ears. Instead, it would resonate around him, and sound as if it had been swallowed up by the darkness that trapped him on all sides.
Sasuke had let his guard down, whereas Romeo never had his up at all. Itachi had them both trapped in his Tsukuyomi.
In the world of his illusion, everything seemed to go in slow-motion for a few moments. The lightning at the tip of Sasuke's blade stretched out toward him, but as soon as it pierced Itachi's chest, Itachi seemed to shatter into a million pieces of glass that collapsed into a pile on the floor. At that instant, Romeo would notice that Sasuke's clone was no longer holding him; instead, Itachi was, and he dipped his head down to speak calmly into Romeo's ear.
"I thought I told you, that's enough."
Meanwhile, Sasuke would be unable to move. He would feel as if he were sinking into the floor, and if he managed to look down, he would see that the floor had indeed turned to muck that held his feet in place and started to swallow him up.
In time, even the walls of the cathedral would seem to fade away into a deep red. A blood-red moon hung above them, and still-burning white fires crackled on the ground in rows on either side of them.
((ooc: wow lookit that I wrote more tl;dr, who's surprised? feel free to ping me if you need to clarify anything! oh, and to Romeo-mun, here's a reference of what the colors and all in Tsukuyomi look like. basically, everything that just happened is an illusion, and if someone were to peek into the cathedral right now, they'd see Itachi, Sasuke, and Romeo standing still in place. everything that happens in Tsukuyomi feels real, though, even pain. and hours of time spent in the illusion equal just one second in real time.
haha Itachi is a complicated dickbag. OTL))
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He was better than this. He knew he hadn't looked Itachi in the eyes.
...But he'd had his gaze off Itachi for too long, looking to Romeo. Full seconds. Itachi could have done anything, performed even a genjutsu to force Sasuke to look into his eyes without knowing, activated the second Sasuke looked his way at all. That had to be it. It had to.
For all the good that did him.
- No. No, Sasuke was better than this. Knowing did him everything. He had trained until his eyes had bled, even without the Mangekyou. He was better than this. He was better than Itachi, because he hadn't killed to gain his power. No. Fuck this. He'd gained his power by saving, and that was how he would use it.
In the stillness and silence, in the black and red and white of the death-colored world, Sasuke's arms began to shake. Then his torso. Then his legs. In a moment, the slowly-extending lightning on his blade, like Itachi's image, shattered into glass. His body suddenly carried forward, stumbling, in an aborted lunge. Around him, the world remained black edged in white. But he could move.
When he turned, breathing heavily, his eyes were not the cold black he remembered Itachi's being here, lined and dotted with white. They were red. The tomoe flickered eerily back and forth between Tsukuyomi white, and their natural black. Even here, in the Tsukuyomi, sweat poured down his face.
But he could move.
Even if only here.
And now that he was here, now that the genjutsu had swirled around him, there was no longer a fear of looking into Itachi's eyes. So he did. With the full force of an avenger's glare, cold, hard, and sharp, tomoe still flickering black and white.
"Let the child go." His voice carried. He made sure it carried. Fuck this cathedral, and viciously fuck that part of Itachi's genjutsu, the part he'd heard breaking Romeo's cries into unintelligible nothings. His voice carried. "You've done enough harm to children in your time alive." There was venom. There was rage. There was no edge of pain. "Finish this with me, Itachi. Be a fucking man about it."
no subject
Itachi wasn't a bad person, even if he had done bad things he wanted to change but if Sasuke killed Itachi... Itachi would be making Sasuke a bad person which would be the baddest thing he had ever done.
"Sasuke." Romeo didn't even know if anyone could hear him, "Your brother is good okay, he just does bad things and needs help. You gotta help him not kill him. Because he loves you!"
no subject
"You've gotten stronger," he mused, and, in his own genjutsu, he didn't have to work to make sure his voice resonated clearly. Sasuke's words stung, but he didn't let it show on his face.
He turned to a cold, steely glare to Romeo when he spoke. He figured that if Sasuke had managed to move, he'd be able to hear Romeo, so he didn't bother trying to disperse the sound of his voice before it reached Sasuke's ears.
"Love him?" he scoffed. And it killed him to say it, but he pressed on, ever the picture of the perfect evil bastard. "I've never loved him."
He released Romeo, and black tendrils shot up out of the earth to wrap around Romeo in his place. They bound his arms to his side and covered his mouth, pressing down tightly. Romeo would feel the pressure, almost bruising, as if it were real, though his actual body remained unharmed. He hoped that little bit of discomfort would send a message, so that he wouldn't have to resort to flat-out pain.
"You shouldn't talk about matters you don't understand."
There was a hint of warning in his cold tone, and the tendrils squeezed down just a bit more tightly on Romeo before he turned his attention back to Sasuke.
no subject
The idea that Itachi was good, that he needed Sasuke's help, was absurd. As far as Sasuke was concerned, there had never existed anyone less good than his soulless monster of a former older brother. War criminals, megalomaniacs, corrupt politicians, child killers, sociopathic mass-murderers... Itachi was all of these and more, compressed into one single person. And of course, for Sasuke, his pain was personal.
Itachi's words only solidified that. Words that hurt, more deeply than Sasuke thought he'd ever hurt in his life. He thought he'd gotten past this... thought he'd convinced himself, long ago, the truth of the words Itachi spoke: there had never been love, only pretension for profit. Yet, to hear it from Itachi's mouth...
The memories that flashed across his mind this time were not pictures of pain, pictures of death and bloodshed. They were pictures of love. And, here in the Tsukuyomi, the world that existed inside minds, the memories played out visibly for both the others to see. Images dancing in shades of red through the broad stained glass windows, clear as day and real as flesh. Sasuke, cradled on Itachi's shoulders, carried gently after having wrenched his ankle. Itachi, smiling and laughing, praising his little brother for finding the elder Uchiha in a ninja hunting game very similar to hide-and-seek. Within the Tsukuyomi, Sasuke's eyes were wrenched shut, but the images played on. Itachi, cutting up a tomato for his very tiny three-year-old brother. Sasuke, nodding into sleep while resting against the other's shoulder. Sasuke and Itachi, respectively pouting and apologetic, as the elder poked the younger in the forehead and promised him they'd play another time.
Sasuke's breathing had become shallow. His hands were clenched fists at his sides. His body shuddered, shoulders stiffened. Tears streaked down his face as the last image played over and over again, different ages, different memories, always the same action: a poke of the forehead, and the promise: "Next time, Sasuke."
Sasuke's eyes snapped open. They were red dotted with black; the flicker had stopped. The blood-red windows of the illusory cathedral shattered, blowing in with the force of an invisible explosion. Sasuke's breathing deepened. And then, the cathedral itself exploded. Images like glass, black and white and red, whirled around the three of them. And then, nothing.
Sasuke was standing halfway up the church. The fire on the pews crackled a soft orange and red. The windows, a riot of rainbow colors in primitive patterns, sat intact and glistening with the afternoon light. Some distance behind, his clone crouched, clutching Romeo close to his chest.
At the head of the church stood Itachi, untouched; Sasuke stared straight into his eyes without fear. His own were red like fire, squinted under brows drawn down in hatred and pain, pouring tears down his face in this world as well. The inside corner of his left eye was also running blood.
"I only wish I'd never loved you."
Near the head of the church, Sasuke's shadow clone hefted Romeo again and ran. Romeo wouldn't even have to look to notice the clone was crying as well; its tears were spattering onto the boy's hands and face. The clone's shoulders were shaking.
Sasuke, halfway up the church, stood still as stone.
"Let's finish this, shall we?"
no subject
Because even though Romeo had promised not to tell anyone he had done it to help Itachi, and he had done it to help the little brother in Itachi's memories, who Itachi loved even if he had hurt him a lot. Nothing good would come of Sasuke believing Itachi to be a truly bad person, it would hurt Sasuke even more than he had been hurt already and it would destroy Itachi. Maybe make him a bad person for real and forever.
"Sasuke I got his memories and he loves you! He was trying to protect you he just has silly ideas and so much bad stuff happened he forgot how to be good! He never was really bad! Don't kill him please! He's my friend!"
1/2 (giving this monster post two icons because I can, fight me)
However, his illusion of composure was shattered as soon as Tsukuyomi was. Pain wracked his body, and he bent forward, slapping a hand over his left eye. He grit his teeth when he felt blood against his palm. That wasn't right - even if his jutsu was broken, the Tsukuyomi had never had such a bad effect on him before. He'd have expected it from Amaterasu, but this? His health must have been in a worse state than he thought.
He had half a mind to be impressed that Sasuke had broken out so quickly, but there was no time for that. Sasuke's clone was running off with Romeo, who was babbling, and even in the muffled cathedral, there was no way the clone wasn't hearing what he was saying. What should he do? What could he do? If he tried to shut Romeo up now, it was clear that he'd have to do nothing short of killing him, and Sasuke wasn't stupid enough to let that pass without suspicion. If he just let Romeo talk with the intent to deny it all later, Romeo would give details that would be impossible to know unless he knew the Uchiha clan's situation intimately, and Sasuke would realize that. If he tried to kill Sasuke instead - the mere thought made him nauseous even in a place where death wasn't permanent - he was bound to fight back long enough for Romeo to say too much.
"Be quiet!" he barked, well aware that his composure was slipping in a way he'd never intended it to. He shouted, not because he wanted his voice to carry, but because he was frantic enough to lose control of the volume of his voice. "Don't make up ridiculous stories!"
Then he turned his attention on Sasuke - crying Sasuke, not his Sasuke, but his little brother all the same - and he straightened his back as he tried to regain the composure he'd lost.
"What are you waiting for? Kill me, if you think it'll matter, but it won't be permanent. Are you so desperate to see me dead that you're willing to settle for an illusion, baby brother?"
2/2
He was supposed to have died a mere few days after he'd shown up in the Tower, by Sasuke's hand, after having a proper conversation with him about Madara and the Eternal Mangekyou. His fight with Sasuke was supposed to be between the two of them, with Itachi pretending to be a monster who wanted to take his eyes, not a cramped, rushed battle in an indestructible tower while having to worry about a kid spilling his secrets to the one person who he hoped would never learn the truth.
Did it even matter? Was this his Sasuke in the first place, wearing a Konohagakure forehead protector and vest like he was proud to be a member of the village? What would happen once their battle was over, leaving one of them dead only to come back the next day? This was unbearable. All of his plans were falling apart around him, but he didn't know what to do, because while he'd allowed leeway for variables in his fight with Sasuke, he had never considered the possibility that something like this would happen.
He raised his head to glare at the both of them, blood dripping down his mouth and from his eye. No. He had to focus. Surely Sasuke would never believe Romeo. Itachi had killed their clan, slaughtered them all, made Sasuke re-live that night for hours and hours. He was meant to be a monster, a murderer, a sociopath who had only pretended to love his brother. That was Sasuke's reality, and Itachi was going to keep it that way.
1/2 This is going to be separate comments for clone and original for a bit I think
That startled him. That startled him to his core, and he stopped in the room above, ducking behind the poor cover of one of the couches. Just for a moment. He'd only need a moment.
He set Romeo down, but kept a tight hold on his shoulders. "Romeo, look at me." Tears were still streaking from the corners of the clone's eyes, but his voice and breathing were steady.
Much as he'd tried to ignore them, he had heard Romeo's words. They sounded crazy. They sounded childish and foolish, and his intent when getting Romeo away had been to tell the child this. To break this naive boy's vision of a kind Itachi, hopefully less cruelly than his own had been broken. He had thought that Itachi had brainwashed this child, lied, played the kindness up, as he had done to Sasuke. But the words I got his memories rang in his head. They sounded the most, absolutely undeniably crazy.
But Itachi had barked. Snapped, yelled, lost his composure. That made Sasuke believe that Romeo must know something.
"I can read your thoughts." He had to cut to the chase here - there was no telling how much time he would or would not have. "But only what you want me to see. I promise." He would not be Itachi. He would not be Itachi. "You just have to look in my eyes and tell me it's okay."
2/2
He would not be Itachi.
"I'll kill you. And it will matter."
He stalked up the aisle of the church, tip of the Uchiha katana dragging sparks along the stone. With Itachi in his current state, he was in no hurry. His eyes could see. Whatever had happened, Itachi's chakra was waning. He was less a danger now than he'd ever been. This did not shake Sasuke's resolve.
"I'll kill you, and when you wake up, I will kill you again." In the increased heat of the building, fires still crackling on the pews, one of the sparks from the blade's tip incited the extra bare degree needed to start a blaze on the aisle carpet. Slow fire began to spread along the path behind Sasuke's approach, creeping. "I will kill you every day if that's what it takes." He felt the heat dancing behind him. It didn't matter. "If you want to stop me, you'll have to do the same thing." The tears of blood creeping down the inside of his cheek, past his nose and lips, dripped finally from the edge of his chin, dotting black-dark crimson on the green of his jacket. "You will have to kill me. Every day." He reached the end of the aisle's carpet, and stopped, inches from the bottom step of the cathedral's head. The low, licking fire creeped up behind him, backlighting him in hellish orange. "Not that it'll matter. You've been doing that my whole life without touching me."
He lifted his blade, sheathing it in a flicker and snap, hands blurring the signs for the Chidori. "Your little brother died that day, and every day since, and you're going to join him."
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"Look!" He stared into Sasuke's eyes and tried to push everything he wanted him to see to the front of his mind, him waking up as Itachi, meeting Itachi as him and then the memories, Itachi's motives. The overwhelming love he had for his little brother.
"I wasn't lying!"
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While those thoughts, wild and disorganized, buzzed around in his head, he never took his eyes off of Sasuke. The ferocity of his words cut through the heavy, muffled atmosphere of the cathedral like a knife, one that pierced Itachi straight through the heart.
This wasn't the Sasuke he knew. He couldn't explain it, didn't know what sorts of tricks the Tower had pulled, but his Sasuke or not, he still spoke with all of the raw emotions that his own Sasuke should rightfully feel. The pain. The betrayal. The years of loneliness and depression and brewing rage, all products of the feelings Itachi tried so hard to instill in him, all of it was as accurate as could be.
This wasn't his Sasuke. But this Sasuke hurt just as badly, and it was all his fault.
And he spoke the painful truth, at that. What sort of life was ahead of them if they continued on this way? A life of misery and fighting and death, repeated endlessly until the Tower took pity on them and killed them for good (if that was even an option). And even then, it would be an improper death, a pointless death, one that hadn't served the purpose Itachi had set for it.
So, that was that.
There was really no point in fighting, was there?
Resolutely, Itachi stood in place in the cathedral and made no move to defend himself against whatever attack Sasuke had planned. His eyes lost their fury, their fervor, and he gave a tired smile that felt strained and false.
"...I'm sorry, Sasuke."
He didn't bother trying to make his voice carry.
1/?
The clone jerked when the jutsu ended, eyes wide, tears streaming down its face. "...Romeo." His voice was tight, his breath short. "I have to disappear now so the real me sees these. You're gonna be safe." A hard, thick swallow. "Itachi and I aren't going to fight anymore."
And the clone gave Romeo a firm hug, whispered, "Thank you," and vanished in a puff of white smoke.
2/?
In a flicker-fast leap, his feet left the floor, body streaking through the air toward the eternal bane of his life, arm whipping around to aim his hand straight for the older man's heart.
3/4
The memories hit.
His eyes widened, hard-furrowed brows relaxing out and up into a picture of shock.
Love. Hurt. Loyalty.
Love.
His whole body twisted back, arm swinging immediately back out to one side, away from Itachi, far away from Itachi. He swung his weight back, shoulders tipping backward, feet throwing forward, just trying not to crash himself and his lightning into the other.
He stopped barely short, feet landing hard inches from Itachi's, weight wavering, rumpled green of his vest almost brushing Itachi's chest. His eyes, wide, one still running blood, stared up into his brother's from no more distance than the difference of their height.
4/4 sob a herd of tl;dr
Head tilted forward, eyes squeezed shut but running fast tears, Sasuke stood numb, unmoving, and sobbed.
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He watched ready to run forward again if they decided they still wanted to hurt each other.
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Sasuke was right there, crying in front of him.
Itachi didn't know what to do. He wanted to pull Sasuke close, to coo at him and tell him everything would be okay, because that was always his first instinct as his older brother. But he held back, arms by his sides, his eyes cast downward. Slowly, the red faded from his eyes, leaving them solid black and even more blurred than they were before.
He opened his mouth to speak, but he was at a loss for words. Try as he might, he couldn't think of anything to say to comfort Sasuke - what could you say to the person whose life you ruined? - so he just stood there, unmoving, giving Sasuke the opportunity to decide what he was going to do.
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Then, with no warning whatsoever, he brought a fist around to punch Itachi squarely in the side of his jaw.
"Do you have any fucking idea what you put me through?" His voice was absolutely shrill - he was screaming, not yelling. "What my life has been like? Why would you do this to me? What the hell is wrong with you?" All questions that had been burning within him since seven, and yet, now, here, there was some better chance they might have answers. "Why did you never fucking tell me anything? Why this? Why? Why?" His voice broke on that last why, and he brought his hands up to press the heels of them against his aching eyes, fingers twisting in his bangs. His next question was quieter, if just as shrill. "Why did you make me so miserable?"
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He almost wished that this Sasuke would continue with his original plan and kill him. Even if it was pointless, even if it went on forever, Itachi would let it happen if it took some of Sasuke's pain away. But he knew that, in light of what had just happened, that wasn't going to happen, so the least he could do was try to give Sasuke answers. He deserved that much.
"I never wanted you to find out," he said. "I had thought I'd let you kill me, and then maybe you'd-"
He stopped abruptly, drawing in a shaky breath.
"...I wanted to try and make up for what I did, somehow. I didn't think things would end up like this."
It was a useless apology considering everything he'd put Sasuke through, but it was the only one he had. The decision he'd made wasn't a happy one, but it necessary. There was only so much he could do to try and make it better.
Almost as an afterthought, he added, softly but with conviction, "Perhaps it was selfish of me, but I couldn't bring myself to kill you."
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The words were out of Sasuke's mouth before he could stop them, raw with years of pain. A sharp, shaking breath shook into his lungs, ending on the choked note of a sob.
"I don't - I never wanted to live like this." His voice was thick with tears now, wet instead of shrill. "You didn't - how could killing you make up for anything?" And as much as it hurt to the very center of his chest to say it, he knew his next words were true. "Revenge or no revenge, I would have hated myself for killing you." After everything, even in his absolute conviction, in the seconds he'd been sure Itachi was about to die by his hand - he still loved his brother. Still missed him. Still hurt for the memories of seven and younger.